


Distraction

by champagnelarrie



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bottom Louis, I made a fake "Harry Styles reads thirst tweets" scene, Kinda, Los Angeles, Louis becomes super thirsty and slutty later lmao, M/M, San Francisco, Smut, The X Factor, haha - Freeform, hipster louis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 17:23:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20118802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/champagnelarrie/pseuds/champagnelarrie
Summary: Louis is a r&b/pop singer from San Francisco who lands a spot as a contestant on the X-Factor. He meets solo artist and heart throb Harry Styles and has been thirsting him ever since they met at the X Factor pre-season party. Especially after expressing his thirst in an interview.Based on the song "Distraction" by Kehlani.





	1. Chapter 1

I'mma be 100% honest. I pictured this entire thing with myself and Shawn Mendes lmao. Idk when it happened but i’m so thirsty for him, but thought it was better written as louis and harry. Also, I’ve only watched the X-Factor once so I honestly don’t know how the show works, so a lot of how the show works is made up and I’m kind of reinventing it to make it more interesting.

Also a lot of opinions/personality you’ll see in the characters are my own so obviously they don’t reflect the actual opinions of any of the boys in real life (they're not hella crazy opinions don't worry haha) or if they’re real people blah blah blah. Also the characters based on real people aren’t going to always have the personality you think they would based on other fics you’ve read so be prepared for that change. And yeah... If you don't like what I write, don't read it! Anyways, enjoy.

Also, there will be songs that go along with this fic that I highly recommend you listen to when mention if you've never heard it because I think it adds to the story. If you want me to make a spotify playlist or apple music playlist for it let me know in the comments.

I haven't written in a million years, so if this is bad yikes! Please tell me if my writing is corny and where. I really won't be offended because I'm not super experienced in writing. I tried to make it as well written in my own style to the best of my abilities, but I'll take anyone's tips!

Lastly, the age differences are a bit off, so Louis would basically be born in 1998, and harry in 1997.

I think that's everything so without further ado, please enjoy!


	2. The Ex-Factor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you read the first chapter! lol. Also towards the end there's a couple songs that are linked to some words so I encourage you to click on it for reference and enjoyment.

_ ~ April 2017 ~ _

  
  


Louis had always loved music from a young age. But it wasn’t until his teenage years, his coming of age, that he fell in love with R&B and Pop. He fell in love with amazing artists such as Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse, TLC, Ne-Yo, Mario, Rihanna and more. He started to sing in his room, in the shower, in front of his friends and family when he was listening to music with his earphones, and even while walking down the streets of San Francisco on his way to school. He thought no one was listening to him sing along, but they were. They just never said anything, they were just endeared. One day though, his best friend Mia said he had a really good voice, overhearing him sing ‘Take a Bow’ by Rihanna. She encouraged him to pursue a singing career.

“A singer? Really?” Louis asked, in a sarcastic way, but also kind of considering it. It was lunch period at school on a cloudy day. Another cloudy day of course. It’s SF.

“Yes dude. You have a great voice! Why not go for it?” Mia asked, reaching for another hot cheeto with her plastic fork. “You could get really far with it I bet.”

“How the fuck would I even do that? What do I do after we graduate? I’d have to like, starting writing songs and shit. I don’t even play a fucking instrument. Am I even qualified?” he asks, reaching for one of her cheetos and popping it in his mouth, wiping the cheeto dust on his fingers onto his pants.

“We can go to L.A.! You could sing around in bars and clubs! Try to get noticed by some big shot producers, or something. I don’t know,” she suggests, shrugging. “Also, you don’t need to play an instrument. Your voice is your instrument. Plus there’s plenty of songwriters out there who can help you with song writing, duh.”

“Okay, but Mia, we have to go to college too! I go to SF State in the fall. I’m not dropping out of college to pursue a hypothetical singing career. That’s literally insane.” he retorted. 

“Okay you’re right. College is important. Buuuuuttt, you love music Louis. I know you do. You haven’t shut up since freshman year about it. And I’m sure you loved it even before we met.”

“That’s true. I do love music. But that’s not a practical career in the Bay Mia. You know how expensive it is here. I chose to major in Bio for a reason, Mia. I want to be able to afford to live here. To maybe someday be able to put a down payment on a house here.”

“You really think a person with a Bio degree is gonna be able to live in a house in the Bay? Especially SF? The average house here is  _ at least _ a million dollars. You know that bro,” she points out. 

“Yeah, well, we’ll fucking see won’t we?” Louis says. 

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch and for 6th period starting in 5 minutes.

“Common, let’s go to Calc,” Louis says.

“Ugh, fuck! Fine. But this conversation isn’t over.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he retorts, rolling his eyes.

***

_ 2 years later _

_ ~ September 2019 ~ _

_ *** _

  
  


It was a gloomy, warm Friday afternoon in San Francisco. The temperature was about 65 degrees, the air crisp. Louis was wearing some gray plaid pants folded a couple times at the ankle, an oversized purple long sleeve t-shirt, and some black old skool Vans with white socks that hit 2 inches above his ankle. He was skateboarding around the campus of SFSU on his longboard, on his way to his public speaking class, while talking to Mia on his air pods. He wasn’t technically allowed to ride boards on campus, but he’s never been stopped or caught so he took that as permission to continue to use it. 

“So when did you say you were coming?” Louis asked, dodging other students who are just standing in the middle of the pathways, looking down at their phones. He shakes his head in annoyance, wondering why people like that grace this planet.

“Well I’m leaving in like, half an hour, I’m just grabbing some lunch from the caf and then driving up. I’ll be there at about 2 o'clock. Hopefully there’s not too much traffic on 280,” Mia responds, paying for her lunch. “Thank you,” she says to the lady at the register. 

“Alright that’s perfect. I get out of class at 1:15 so I’ll be there by 2:15 ish probably too.”

“Okay, for sure. See you then!” Mia replies, unlocking her car.

“See ya. Bye!”

*

Louis gets on his Bart train at 1:30 and sits down on one of the seats after checking for any heroin needles, and any sketchy people around him, because that’s Bart for you. He was listening and humming along to Charlie Puth’s “Boy” when he sees a bright red poster inside that catches his attention. He was staring right at it. The big letters staring right back at him. 

_ Audition for the X Factor! Apply online now at xfactorauditionus.com, and submit a video of yourself singing to win an audition at the live auditions in L.A. in October! Application deadline is September 20th.  _

He puts in the website into his phone and sees all the details about the auditions, as well as pictures of past winners. 

_ “It’s too good to be true” _ Louis thought. He exited out of the website and went back to listening to music, sighing deeply as The Weeknd’s “Reminder” starts playing.

*

Louis and Mia finally met up later at Louis’s place in the Sunset district. It was 3 pm and they were in Louis’ room, lounging on his bed while Big Mouth was playing on Netflix. 

“I still think it’s weird that we both got three day weekends on the same weekend despite going to different schools and for different reasons,” Louis tells Mia.

“Same, but I’m not complaining,” she replies. “How was Bart? Anyone get killed?”

“Haha, very funny,” Louis says sarcastically. “That happened once, and it was closer to Oakland.”

“Still. I really don’t get why you don’t just drive. Shit like that scares the fuck out of me. I’d rather take CalTrain.”

“Because Bart is cheaper!” he exclaims.

“Okay but CalTrain isn’t that much more expensive and way classier and safer. You’re not that broke, bitch.”

“Okay whatever. I’ll think about it,” he tells her, and was actually considering that option.“Do you have hella homework though?” he asks, changing the subject. 

“No not really. I have one essay that’s due Monday but it’s basically done. I just gotta write a conclusion.”

“Lucky. I have to read like 30 pages for history. I’m just gonna skim, read the chapter summaries and look up the main topics on history.com though. My professor literally can’t tell the difference from when I’ve read and haven’t. But I feel like it’s because I’m his favorite student because I’m the only one who speaks.”

“What do you mean you’re the only one who speaks?”

“Like whenever he asks us a question whether it’s a direct question where you answer with a fact, or answer with your opinion on a certain topic, I’m basically the only person to raise my hand. People in my class are literally so damn shy. I don’t get it. Like hello, you’re a grown ass adult in college, not in middle school. Speak up!” he exclaims, and shakes his head.

“Okay but some people are scared of public speaking and have social anxiety,” Mia points out. 

“Okay sure, that’s true. But not everyone does! Some people just choose not to speak. It’s also hella awkward when no one responds to his questions and the classroom is dead silent because no one wants to speak. But honestly, who cares. They’re the ones losing easy points!”

“Well, anyways. Since we have nothing to do basically, do you want to go out tonight? I was thinking we could go to Off The Grid or Hippie Thai, and then go to twin peaks to watch the sunset.”

“Yeah sure sounds fun. Let’s go to Hippie Thai though. Off the Grid is always so crowded and I’m not in a crowd-tolerating mood today.”

“Fine with me.”

A few moments of silence passed before Mia asks, “So have you thought about going to a club or cafe yet to perform?”

Louis groans, “No. Ugh. When I did it last year those couple of times it was so scary.”

“Okay but you got great responses! People loved you!” Mia replies enthusiastically. “Plus the more you do it, the less scary it will be. And think of the opportunities!”

“I don’t know, maybe. We’ll see,” he replies, thinking about the ad he saw earlier that day for the X-Factor.

“Good. Now let’s watch something else. I’ve watched this season like 3 times already,” Mia complains, grabbing Louis’ laptop and typing in  _ youtube.com. _

She looks through his recommended videos and sees the video called “ _ Harry Styles reads Thirst Tweets” _ . (side note: this doesn’t exist, i’m making it up). Her eyes widen as she slowly starts to grin as she clicks on it.

“What are you watch-” Louis starts before he’s interrupted by the video.

_ “Hi I’m Harry Styles and I’m going to be reading some thirst tweets” _

“Are you fuckin serious Mia. Are you really gonna wat-”

“Shhhhh. I’m trying to watch” she says, lightly smacking him on the shoulder.

_ “‘I will never be horny for anyone as I was for Harry Styles in the Drag Me Down video,’”  _ he reads aloud.  _ “Haha. Well, thank you. I’m flattered.” _

_ “‘I would take Harry Styles’s jawline out for coffee.’ Well that’s kind of you. Let’s set that up some time.” _

“That’s not even that thirsty,” Louis points out.

_ “‘I’m sorry but I would lick every part of Harry Styles’ body.’ That would get quite messy wouldn’t it? What about my hair? That wouldn’t be very good.” _

_ “‘I want Harry Styles to sit on my face.’ That would not be very comfortable but I appreciate the offer.” _

_ “‘I would let Harry Styles teabag me after a long hour gym session.’ Jesus. Wow. I don’t know how to respond to that. Thank you? Haha.”  _ he responds while blushing.

“Oh my god. Someone actually tweeted that?!” Louis asks, in a judge-y laugh, shocked, yet also not exactly opposed to the thought. 

“Yeah and I’m surprised that wasn’t me. Don’t act like you wouldn’t suck his dick, okay? I know you. If given the opportunity, I know you would do it. Period,” Mia asserts.

Louis scoffs, but after a brief moment of silence he mumbles, “Okay, maybe” and Mia barks out a quick “Ha!”.

_ “‘You can just tell Harry Styles has a nice dick. It’s in his eyes,’” _ he reads, and purposely widens his eyes slightly while getting closer to the camera lens. The lens zooms in even more as he bounces his eyebrows twice. 

_ “‘I was just thinking about Harry Styles on my flight and my nipples got hard’. I think that’s just the plane A/C ventilation but I’ll gladly take the credit,”  _ he says with a smile.

The video ends soon as he closes the video with,  _ “Thank you for sending your thirsty tweets. I am very flattered and I am going to go sit down after this for a long time to self-reflect. Please subscribe to Buzzfeed Celeb by clicking here and click here to see more videos like this. Thanks, have a good one.” _

“Wow. What a man,” Mia says, taking a deep breath out. “Did him and the rest of One Direction win the X-Factor? Is that how they got famous?” she asks.

“No, I don’t think they did win. They got like third place or some shit,” Louis replies, trying to find another video to watch to forget literally everything he just heard.

“Oh. Well then who won?” 

“I don’t know. Who cares,” Louis replies, reaching into his bedside drawer to get his wax pen.

He takes a deep hit and clicks on a Kurtis Conner video. They get sucked into a spiral of videos until about 6 o'clock when they get hungry and decide to go grab dinner. 

*

They take Mia’s 2011 Camry to get to Hippie Thai and park a few streets away on the nicer side of the Panhandle park. You really don’t want to take any chances in this area. When they get to Hippie Thai on Haight St., it’s not super busy, which is great because they can grab a table easily. They sit at the table in the corner, right by the window towards the entrance. The warm lighting of the small restaurant glowing as soft Thai pop music plays in the background. They were able to order quickly and had their food ready within 20 minutes.

Mia takes a bite of her chicken fried rice and groans, with her mouth half full. 

“Fuck dude, this fried rice always hits so good. I really don’t get how they do that.”

“I know right. So bomb. I’m glad we came here instead of off the grid. We would’ve spent half an hour trying to decide what to get,” Louis responds, 

“For real. Should we get dessert here?” Mia asks.

“No let’s go to Bizza. I’m dying to have deep fried oreos.”

“Ooh that does sound good. Can we share though, I don’t wanna order a whole thing for just me.”

“Fine, you can have 2.” Louis says.

“Yay, thanks Lou,” she grins at him and he pokes his tongue out at her in return, jokingly.

After they finished eating, they decided to walk around Haight St. around the shops to walk off the Thai food to make room for the oreos. Seems kind of extra but they were determined to eat them. They spend about 15 minutes looking around Wasteland, the high end thrift store, before heading over to Amoeba Music, looking at random records and albums that they’re never going to buy because they stream their music on their shared Apple Music account. When Mia looks around towards the front of the shop, she sees a poster for X Factor auditions, the same one Louis saw on the Bart. She looks over at Louis who’s just looking at random records, unaware of what Mia’s just discovered. He’s singing along to the song playing in the shop, “Creep” by TLC. She types the link written on the poster into her phone to save it for later. 

After another five minutes of mindless browsing, they finally leave and go to Bizza to get their oreos, and go back to Mia’s car. They decide to go straight to twin peaks and to eat the fried oreos up there. Luckily they remembered to bring a couple blankets or else they would’ve been freezing. It also wasn’t too foggy outside, so they could actually see a sunset. They park the car and go down to sit on the grass and wrap the blankets around themselves. There wasn’t a lot of people there, maybe 10 max, but they still were able to get a spot away from them. 

Mia looks over at Louis who was just looking at the SF skyline, wondering if she should bring up the poster she saw. After a few moments of thinking about it, she decided to say something.

“Hey so um. At Amoeba I saw something...” she said, looking at the sunset.

“Oh yeah? What?” Louis asks, looking in the same direction as her, then takes a bite of one of the oreos.

“A poster for the X Factor. For auditions,” she tells him, now looking at him to see his reaction.

His breath shortens a bit when she says that, then goes back to normal. He does his best to stay calm.

“Okay and what about it?” 

“I think you should do it.”

“Mia come on, stop. We’ve talked about this. I’m not-” he tells her but she interrupts him.

“No Louis.  _ You _ stop. Why the hell are you running away from your dream. This is a major fucking opportunity and you don’t want to take it! Why do you always do this shit?!” she accuses him, raising her voice. 

“Why are you always pressuring me to do shit I don’t want to do?! Fuck! It’s my life and I can do what I want with it!”

“You’re just being a pussy!” she shouts

“Well you’re being a bitch!” he shouts back. 

Her eyes widen at that, and she sighs. “Look I’m sorry, but Louis it sucks seeing you turn away opportunities like this when I know how much talent you have. This could be a big break! All you have to do is send in a video of you singing. I know you’d get an audition. You’re an amazing singer.”

“I’m scared,” he admits. “What if I get the audition and get turned away. My heart would break. I don’t think I can handle rejection in front of millions of people.”

“Yeah I mean standing in front of a few thousand people and broadcasted for millions to see is scary as fuck. But you’re one of the bravest people I know. Plus, I’m confident they won’t turn you away. I really think you should go for it.”

Louis feels a big knot in his throat. The thought alone gives him so much anxiety, but he knows she’s right. 

“Okay. I’ll do it,” he says finally.

“Really?!” Mia asks excitedly.

“Yup.”

She squeals and shouts, “Yay! I’m so excited for you!” and hugs him, almost making him drop his oreo.

“Alright, alright. Chill. And also eat your oreos, they’re going to get cold,” he points to the box.

She grabs one and says, “Okay. And if you need any help with making your audition video, let me know.”

“Actually, there is something you can help me with. You know your friend slash the guy you have a crush on, Omar? The one who looks like Avan Jogia?”

“...Yes...? Why?” she asks, squinting her eyes a bit.

“He plays guitar right? Can you ask him to play the song for the video? He doesn’t have to be in it though if he doesn’t want.”

“Sure, I’ll text him and ask.”

“Can I also use your camera for filming? I feel like my phone camera won’t be nice.”

Mia had a nice camera because she’s a film and media studies major, and also dabbled in photography too.

“Yeah of course. Do you know what song you want to sing?”

“Yeah, but I’m not telling you yet, haha,” he says and she rolls her eyes at that. “But as soon as Omar let’s us know if he’s down, I’ll tell you guys.”

“Ugh, fine. You know what, I’m just going to ask him right now just so we can speed this up.”

“Alright, go ahead.”

*

Eventually Omar agrees to play for the video and they meet up on Saturday at 6 at Louis’ after they both get off work at 5. They go up to his room along with Mia who came as well (of course she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to hang out with Omar, who do you think she is?). 

“So I brought two guitars with me because I didn’t know which you prefer or which would sound better for the song. One’s acoustic and one’s a solid body electric. I also brought my loop pedal in case you wanted to use that too for like harmonies and shit,” Omar says, laying all of this on the floor in front of Louis’ bed, and then sitting down at Louis’ desk chair 

“Wow you really thought this out. Thank you so much,” Louis expresses from his bed, Mia sitting beside him. 

“Nah don’t worry about it. My pleasure. Also I literally having a boring life so this is the most exciting thing I’ve done in the past 3 months,” he replies.

“Well still, I appreciate it.”

“So what are you singing Louis? Since we’re all here now and you have to tell me,” Mia asks.

Louis softly laughs, “I’m singing Ex-Factor by Lauryn Hill.”

“Wow. Ironic  _ and _ iconic?”

“I know. I wasn’t trying to be ironic but it’s funny that it worked out like that. Anyways let’s get started. Omar you have the sheet music right?”

“Yeah right here,” he replies, pulling it out of his backpack.

“Alright sick, let’s do this,” he says, clapping his hands.

Mia sets up her camera on Louis’ desk to face his bed, and sits on his desk chair when she’s done. Omar sets up his loop pedal and microphone and gives Louis a quick tutorial on how to use the pedal and Louis mostly understands. They quickly review the rules for the video submission before they decide to record. Essentially you have to make sure that the lighting and sound is good, the song is not offensive to any group of people and to give a small description at the beginning of the video of who they are, where they’re from, their age, and what they’re going to sing. After that, they both take a seat on Louis’ bed and are ready.

“Ready?” Mia asks, and they both nod. She counts down, “Three...two...one, go,” and starts recording. 

“Hi, I’m Louis Tomlinson. I’m 19 and from San Francisco. And I’m going to be singing  [ ‘Ex-Factor’ by Lauryn Hill.”  ](https://youtu.be/V89ZjRwMlvM)

Omar begins to  [ play the chords ](https://youtu.be/ox9NC_SvfUg) , choosing to use the electric.

_ It could all be so simple _

_ But you'd rather make it hard _

_ Loving you is like a battle  _

_ And we both end up with scars _

_ Tell me who I have to be _

_ To get some reciprocity _

_ See, no one loves you more than me  _

_ And no one ever will _

_ Is this just a silly game  _

_ That forces you to act this way?  _

_ Forces you to scream my name _

_ Then pretend that you can't stay  _

_ Tell me, who I have to be  _

_ To get some reciprocity _

_ See, no one loves you more than me _

_ And no one ever will _

_ No matter how I think we grow _

_ You always seem to let me know _

_ It ain't working, It ain't working _

_ And when I try to walk away _

_ You'd hurt yourself to make me stay _

_ This is crazy, this is crazy  _

_ I keep letting you back in  _

_ How can I explain myself?  _

_ As painful as this thing has been _

_ I just can't be with no one else _

_ See I know what we've got to do  _

_ You let go (You let go), and I'll let go too  _

_ Cause no one's hurt me more than you  _

_ And no one ever will _

_ No matter how I think we grow _

_ You always seem to let me know _

_ It ain't working , it ain't working  _

_ And when I try to walk away _

_ You'd hurt yourself to make me stay _

_ This is crazy, Oh, this is crazy  _

Louis starts to use the loop pedal to record the next verse so he can harmonize with himself and sing the background parts.

_ Care for me, care for me _

_ I know you care for me _

_ There for me, there for me _

_ Said you'd be there for me _

_ Cry for me, cry for me _

_ You said you'd die for me _

_ Give to me, give to me _

_ Why won't you live for me? _

_ (Care) Care for me, care for me  _

_ You said you'd care for me _

_ (There)There for me, there for me  _

_ Said you'd be there for me _

_ (Cry) Cry for me, cry for me  _

_ You said you'd die for me _

_ (Give )Give to me, give to me _

_ Why won't you live for me? _

_ (Care) Care for me, care for me  _

_ You said you'd care for me _

_ (There)There for me, there for me  _

_ Said you'd be there for me _

_ (Cry) Cry for me, cry for me  _

_ You said you'd die for me _

_ (Give )Give to me, give to me _

_ Why won't you live for me? _

_ Care for me, care for me _

_ You said you'd care for me _

_ There for me, there for me _

_ Said you'd be there for me _

_ Cry for me, cry for me _

_ You said you'd die for me _

_ Where? _

_ Where? _

_ Where were you _

_ When I needed you? _

He finished the song, smiled, gave a thumbs up, and Mia turns off the camera.

“Holy shit Louis, you’re fucking amazing. I honestly thought you were going to be mediocre but yeah no, you’re great,” Omar tells him and Louis bursts out laughing.

“I’m glad I exceeded your expectations. And you were great to. That’s impressive that you were able to follow along ”

“Okay well, I’m going to go to the bathroom and then go export and download the video so we can submit it as soon as possible,” Mia says with a soft smile. “And as always, you sounded beautiful. I’m so proud of you,” she tells him and then leaves to go to the bathroom.

“So um...are you and her a...thing?” Omar asks.

Louis’ eyes widen and he laughs again, “Absolutely not. I’m hella gay. We’ve just been best friends since our freshman year of high school.”

“Oh okay. Cool...cool,” he replies calmly, running a hand through his hair. “But is she like...dating anyone?” 

“Nope! She’s very single. Why? You tryna slide in there?” Louis asks teasingly.

“Uhhh....-” Omar starts before Mia walks back in and interrupts the conversation.

“Okay I’m back. Let’s download this and submit it.” Mia says coming in and sitting back in Louis’ desk chair.

“Okay.” Louis replies.

She takes about 30 minutes to finish it all and has it ready to submit.

“Do you want to do the honors? Mia asks, Louis to her left and Omar on her right.

“I guess, sure.” 

He clicks the red ‘submit’ button and the next page they see is the submission confirmation page.

‘ _ Thank you for your submission! We look forward to reviewing the submission and will contact you within 5 - 7 business days if you have been selected by email. Good luck! _

“Okay. Now we wait.” Louis says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say the Tori Kelly's version of "Ex-Factor" is how I imagined Omar playing the guitar, and Louis' singing style would be a mixture of the original and Tori's style. Anyways I hope you liked it! Please comment for any corrections or comments or concerns! Hopefully I don't take hella long to update for the next one. Byeeeee.


End file.
